Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Tribecafilm.com Interview

Emilie was recently interviewed by Jenni Miller from tribecafilm.com about Remember Me and Lost. The interview was posted in the site 5 days ago but i just saw it.... Here it is:

Remember Me: Emilie de Ravin

The star of Remember Me talks about the chaos of filming in NYC with Robert Pattinson and getting crazy as Claire on Lost.

Filming on the streets of New York City is never easy for movies big or small, and it definitely doesn't help when one of the co-stars is possibly the most photographed, written about, and stalked actor in the world. The cast and crew of Remember Me, a romantic drama that's the story of two emotionally traumatized college students from different backgrounds, got a chance to find out just the kind of chaos that ensues when your romantic leads are Twilight's Robert Pattinson and Lost's Emilie de Ravin.

Director Allen Coulter explained, "We found ourselves in a situation with the movie that we never expected to be in, particularly... we had no idea we were going to be using Rob Pattinson. We had no idea when we cast him that he was going to be famous. So even though we were prepared to a degree, even the assistant directed Joe Reidy, who had dealt with this before working with Scorsese [and] DiCaprio and so on, no one had an idea that basically we had unleashed Elvis."

Pattinson later described the nuttiness of filming scenes at NYU, when paps got angry that the young star took a bathroom break. "It's strange [because] in New York you can't shut down streets, you can't shut down whole streets in public and so it is weird... you've got, like, 40 people taking photos on the other side of the street and there's nothing you can do... When we were shooting by NYU, I went to the bathroom once and came back, and they were like, 'If he goes away again, we're not gonna let you film anything the whole day!'"

Chris Cooper, who plays the overprotective father of Ally (de Ravin) and a rather hands-on cop, likens it to Love Story. "If I could compare it to any film, and I don't know why there haven't been more films like it, what came to mind immediately to me was the old film Love Story, where you're dealing with [a] working class family and [a] very, very wealthy family and there's that clash."

Pattinson plays the wealthy, troubled, and aimless NYU student Tyler who gets into a brouhaha with Cooper's character, Sgt. Neil Craig, in the summer of 2001. His best friend proposes that they could get revenge on Craig if Tyler seduces and dumps the cop's beautiful and smart daughter Ally, but instead Tyler falls for her. What follows is a romantic and dramatic summer of love.

TribecaFilm.com sat down with de Ravin while the stars were in New York promoting Remember Me to chat about why everyone's so darn interested in what it's like to kiss Pattinson, why she was attracted to her smart and tough character, and her crazy character Claire on Lost.

TribecaFilm.com: Tell me about filming in New York. From what Chris Cooper and director Allen Coulter said, there was at least one scene where things got pretty tense with the paparazzi and the fans when you were filming. It must very difficult to concentrate when stuff like that happens.

Emilie de Ravin: We did shoot probably 90% of the film on location, in Manhattan and Queens and Brooklyn, so it's obviously very accessible to people to watch and [to] paparazzi, and there were definitely challenging times of when we're just rehearsing. You know you've got hundreds and hundreds of people just watching you, even if you're not looking at them. You know they're just watching everything you're doing and you're just trying to work out the logistics of a scene when you're rehearsing it. I tried to make it more of a challenge than a frustration. [laughs]

TribecaFilm.com: How did you block it out? With something like Lost, you're literally isolated on an island, and Remember Me is the complete opposite.

EdR: Yes, it is a complete 180. You know, just do it! [laughs] You just gotta do it. And you know, unless you're doing a scene on your own, at least you've got that other person who's in the same position and you can work through it together, and you end up talking and focusing on what you're doing.

TribecaFilm.com: Is it kind of frustrating to be asked all the time about your love scenes with Rob Pattinson?

EdR: [laughs] I've never been asked that, what are you talking about?!

TribecaFilm.com: He's the hottest 20-something in the world, and you've got some pretty hot scenes with him.

EdR: Well, it's funny though, too, because when I'm getting asked what it's like kissing Rob... I'm really intrigued what people are really looking for. I mean, do they want me to describe his mouth? [laughs] What can you say? It's like, well, his lips part at about 2.3 millimeters... It's funny.

TribecaFilm.com: What was your personal connection to this movie? Which part about it grabbed you? Your character is kinda spunky—she's not your typical romantic lead these days.

EdR: She's a realist, and she is spunky, and she doesn't take crap from anyone, and she's honest, and she wants people to be honest with her. That's just how it is. And she's pretty ballsy too in that way, I think. I guess all these character traits drew me to her, but just in general, there's just something about her that I connected with, and it's one of those things you can't really put into words. But I just was dying to play her, and I'm so happy that I got to, as I sort of, in my overdramatic way, said that I'd quit acting if I didn't get this film just "cause I felt so strongly about being involved in it, and this was just from reading the script. I didn't know anyone involved. It was just purely on what it is; all the characters are so beautifully developed and the way the story unfolds and everyone's interactions, it just kind of spoke to me in a really great way.

TribecaFilm.com: Okay, here come some Lost questions. On Lost, do you know what is supposed to happen to you in regards to being "claimed" in the story line?

EdR: We're still filming, so I'm still sort of learning about that with the scripts that we're getting, but what we have shot that hasn't aired, it's interesting. It's cool.

TribecaFilm.com: So do you get crazier?

EdR: I can't say!

TribecaFilm.com: Does your hair get bigger?

EdR: The hair, yes, it gets a lot bigger, and I put some highlights in it. Purple, actually. No, the hair's crazy enough as it is. It's nuts. Thank god it's a wig. Can you imagine doing that to your hair every day?

TribecaFilm.com: When you started Lost in 2004, did you have any idea that it would become so huge? People have parties to watch it every week.

Yeah, it's kind of insane... I think we all had a really good feeling shooting the pilot about it, this was something really unique and special, but you never know. It's all about timing, what people want to watch and what year [it is] and what people are drawn to, but it's amazing.